Docked at the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX's Crew Dragon Resilience has now exceeded 84 days in space, surpassing the previous record for any U.S. spacecraft.
Back in the early 1970s, an Apollo command module logged 84 days, one hour, and 16 minutes in orbit during the Skylab 4 mission—the third and final crewed visit to America's first space station. That mark stood as the longest for any U.S. vehicle until this Sunday, February 7, when SpaceX's Crew-1 mission and its Resilience capsule eclipsed it.
Launched last November, Resilience delivered NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with JAXA's Soichi Noguchi, to the ISS, where it has remained docked ever since.
This achievement applies specifically to U.S. spacecraft. The all-time record for crewed vehicles remains 215 days, 8 hours, and 22 minutes, set by Russia's Soyuz TMA-09 in 2007.
Marking the occasion, the Crew-1 astronauts spoke with Skylab 4 pilot Ed Gibson—47 years after his mission. Sadly, crewmates Jerry Carr and Bill Pogue have passed away.
For Gibson, those 84 days through February 8, 1974, also represented the longest U.S. astronaut mission at the time. That personal record fell on June 6, 1995, to Norm Thagard, who spent about 115 days on Russia's Mir station (involving two launches).
U.S. spaceflights have since grown dramatically. Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly holds the current American single-mission record of 340 days, achieved in March 2016.
Resilience is slated to return the Crew-1 team to Earth in late March after roughly 160 days aloft. Designed for up to 210 days docked at the ISS, it paves the way for the Crew-2 mission this spring, carrying Expedition 64/65 members—including France's Thomas Pesquet.
